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Styles
Introduction to Styles Developing your own personal style is something that takes time. It's more than just reading a wiki or how-to on the internet and being able to regurgitate everything you've read. Style is less about following the rules, and more about playing by your own. That said, a solid understanding of the rules is a crucial foundation. If you don't understand the "rules" to begin with, then you certainly don't understand how to break them. To begin, you're going to want to observe other people and what they wear. When you see a person you believe to be really well dressed, take a mental snapshot of what they're wearing. Remember the colors, the fit of the clothing, the person's body type (very important!! more on this later), the lines, shapes, and the pieces they're combining. You want to try to understand what the clothing is doing for the person you're looking at, and you want to understand why. The what will come relatively quickly, the why is a bit more in depth. However, the idea is that you build a mental library which you can refer to. Before you can start building your own style, you need to understand what you like. You need to develop your own taste. There are some fundamentals which you should consider when you're thinking about what kind of style you want to develop: Lifestyle What kind of life do you lead? Your style is more than just the clothes you put on your back. It's a representation of your lifestyle and your attitude. Your fashion choices should accommodate your lifestyle, not the other way around. This is relatively simple. A typical example is that one jackass at college who wears a suit and tie to every class and looks no older than 18. It looks out of place. Body Don't kid yourself. You might tell yourself that you look identical to Brad Pitt or Ryan Gosling or , but do you really? It's great to love yourself and it's great to have a healthy outlook on life, but you simply can't fool others into perceiving you as one of the aforementioned unless you actually do resemble them somewhat. Your fashion choices can only help you so much. You need to dress for the body you have now. If you've been paying attention to others, you'll have noticed by now that some people look great in a t-shirt and jeans. Body type plays a huge role here. A 5'5 balding obese man is not going to look anywhere near as good in a t-shirt and jeans as a 6'2 well-built model. Body type is almost always not permanent though. There are certain things you can't change: you can't change your bone structure, and you can't change your height, but you can work with what you've got. You can lose weight, you can build muscle, you can fix your posture (most people can work on this especially), you can get a haircut that flatters your facial structure and you can wear clothes that accentuate your height (slimmer fits rather than loose fits). Remember, it's hard to be truly ugly as a male. Everybody generally has some redeeming quality. In summary, you need to work out, and you need to not kid yourself. Here's a quote from our boy Rick: "Working out is modern couture. No outfit is going to make you look or feel as good as having a fit body. Buy less clothing and go to the gym instead." The most important thing here is to get into shape the right way. Go to /fit/ and read the sticky. As for the things you can't change, this is where choosing correctly comes into play. What you'll notice is that some clothes don't suit some body types. Some people naturally have broader shoulders, or broad hips, or a wider torso. This is why you're trying to form a mental library. So you can refer back to it when you're asking yourself whether will suit your individually unique body type. Your clothes shouldn't wear you Follow the simple rules above, and you'll be well on your way to avoiding this mistake. Too many people choose clothes which don't fit their body or their lifestyle, and it ends up looking like a costume. You'll frequently see some hate for leather jackets on halfchan /fa/. It's for this reason. A lot of people just don't have the look, or don't carry themselves in the right way to wear some articles of clothing. It's like this: Confident clothing? Confident walk. Confident speech. Confident posture. Assertiveness. You get the idea? Wearing all black with a biker jacket and some tough looking black boots is going to look like a costume if you walk around slouched, staring at the ground, with your hands in your pockets all day. Ask yourself: am I confident enough to pull this outfit off? If you even in the back of your mind thought 'no', then you probably aren't. Be honest with yourself here. At the end of the day fashion shouldn't be a way to compensate for a lack of confidence or a lack of social skills etc. It can be a great way to improve your confidence if you feel that your current style isn't any good, but it shouldn't be a coping mechanism. If this is you, work on your confidence or your social skills etc., wear clothes that you feel confident wearing, and it'll be only a matter of time until you won't be second guessing yourself. Consider all this, and then ask yourself what you want out of fashion. What message do you want to send to people? How do you want others to perceive you? Where to begin Well now that you've read all that, you're probably wondering when you get to the part where you actually start wearing new clothes. Well, you can start immediately. Go out to a shopping mall or to one of the fashion hubs in your city, and just try on clothes. It doesn't matter if you look a little scruffy or if you don't buy anything. They're not going to throw you out or anything like that. Just try on clothes. As many as you want in as many different combinations as you want. Get a feel for what you like and what suits you. As a beginner, you really shouldn't spend a huge amount of money, unless you can afford to. You might think that you know what you're doing, but believe me, you really don't. We've all been there, and we've all made some really terrible purchases. Keep spending to a minimum. There's plenty of cheap stores around the place which have reasonable quality. E.g. Target plain t-shirts. Once you've really developed your style and are confident with what you're wearing, then it's probably time to lay down some cash on some more expensive items if you really like them and feel that they'd incorporate into your style well. If you really aren't sure where to even begin, perhaps take a look at some of the "categories" of styles. Remember though, fashion is very subjective, and attempting to categorize can be rather detrimental to the whole concept. Traditional Menswear "Menswear is a modernized style that draws from conservative or classical male working aesthetic. Masculine silhouettes, formal incorporated into casual attire, and somewhat preppy styles fall here. Fit and fabric serve great importance in menswear outfits, as well as in controlling the quality of the clothing you purchase. Cheaply made, ill fitting menswear is a recipe for disaster, as it is very easy to come off as sloppy or trashy. Keeping this in mind, a crisp tailored button-down, slim-fitting trousers, a pair of casual oxfords, and a relatively casual tie, for example, can be worn to either a job interview or a night out. In the debates that take place on /fa/ and elsewhere, styles are often given names by their opponents to mock and ridicule its followers. The derogatory term used to describe menswear is "dadcore". As the style's classical aesthetic is associated with the older generations (as in being "clothes for dads") menswear has been mocked as such. However, the nickname has since turned into the term used for failed attempts at menswear which include fedoras, ill fitted suits and generally horrid taste. Clothing in this type of style highly emphasizes construction, material quality and the difficult pattern-making work. Such examples include Loro Piana who is known for cashmere, Ermenegildo Zegna for their wool, and bespoke labels." Prep "Similar in some ways to traditional menswear, but with key distinctions, "prep" is a style that evolved on Ivy League campuses in the mid twentieth century and came to exemplify New England's white upper middle class. Given the influence of collegiate and prep school environments had in shaping the style, prep modes of dress are more casual, youthful, and sporting in nature than traditional menswear. Prep clothing often pays homage to upper middle class leisure activities like equestrianism, sailing, yachting, hunting, rowing, lacrosse, tennis, and rugby. In fact, many prep essentials originated as sportswear like the canvas tennis sneaker, the polo, and the waxed hunting jacket. Embroidered pants may feature nautical symbols, ducks, or hounds. Nautical stripes and boat shoes hearken to sailing and the significance of fishing to the region. As a result of these influences, women's prep styles will often appear androgynous, forgoing skirts and adopting pants, shorts, crew neck sweaters and men's button downs. Prep Essentials: white trainers (canvas or otherwise), wool crew neck sweaters, striped sweaters, chinos, braided leather belts, boat shoes and loafers, a sportscoat, polos, oxfords (both the shoe and the shirt), madras, tweed, duck boots." Streetwear "Streetwear is a style with roots in Western American surf and skate culture but has grown to take inspiration from everything from rap culture, Japanese street fashion, techwear, and even workwear brands. While it has evolved over the years, there are certain clothing items and designs that characterize the style such as bold all over prints, five panel hats, beanies, athletic sneakers (often in loud colorways), brand display, and outerwear made predominantly of synthetic fabrics. Despite these defining features, streetwear is considered one of the more flexible and approachable styles given its emphasis on steeze. The two major forums dedicated to streetwear are Hypebeast and superfuture." Avant-Garde "Artisanal styles are a generally less accessible and remain a niche aesthetic due to high prices and exclusivity. The style is informally referred to as "goth-ninja" on /fa/ or derisively as "goof ninja." The usual defining features of this style are a monochrome / grayscale color palette, unconventional proportions, textures, construction, unique materials. It is a subjective term and therefore there are no real boundaries or rules that dictate whether an unconventional "Dark" look is "Avant - Garde" or not. Ideologies and Philosophy are an important part of the aesthetic, and many of the designers make conscious efforts to differentiate themselves from mass produced garments with no meaning, depth, or "Soul". Many pieces are made with unique techniques, treatment (dying, tanning, distressing), and materials. Often, brands place a strong focus on distinctive or unorthodox construction of pieces, for example rather than using a conventional nylon lining in a blazer, it will be unlined with raw edges on the inside, or the lining will be made of a linen/nylon blended fiber. A vast majority of "avant garde" brands place a strong priority on being anti-branding, using minimalist logos on the interior of pieces, generally placing priority on the construction, form, and quality of the garment, above the brand that created it. Many of the people who appreciate this aesthetic share the same appreciation for craftsmanship, modern design, and anti - consumerism." Urban Techwear "Clothing designed to have specific functional properties incorporating new fabrics and technologies, but worn as everyday clothing.Many brands that exemplify this style are the result of collaborations between fashion designers and sportswear brands (e.g., Y-3, Gyakusou). Some of the clothing takes design cues from military garments (starting with Christopher Bailey's reintroduction of the military inspired aesthetic). Other techwear designs feature clothing with a streamlined, technical look. At some points similar to streetwear, but with a emphasis on human interaction with the elements through technology. Smart fabrics, digital gadgets and the like are coupled with the clothes themselves making many fit for outdoor activities as well." Lunarcore "There is no definitive marker of 'spacecore'. The style itself is rooted in choosing garments that fit a specific feeling, thus forcing the wearer to mine various designers for unifying threads and in doing so reject the vision offered to them as consumers. The unifying thread is retrofuturism, but could just as well be post apocalyptic cowboys as far as the ethos is concerned.What we are doing is using pre-existing products to make a non-existent statement. We are turning the product into the means of production. Like sampling records, but with moods and styles.Space/Lunarcore is about how you use what you have access to in order achieve a look. Color is far more important than in the drapey black stuff /fa/ usually goes for. You need to think critically, build a narrative around your clothing and color choices. Things become appropriate and inappropriate according to how they are framed within the fit. You need to use pieces as symbols and signifiers, telling a story with your outfit." Heroin Chic "More of a "look" than a style of dress, heroin chic became popular in the 90's starting with a Calvin Klein runway show featuring Kate Moss and a series of Vincent Gallo photos featuring emaciated, pale, drug-addicted looking models. Heroin prices were dropping and the purity was much better at the time, which helped increase its popularity. The style was dead in the magazines when, Gisele Bundchen was dubbed the new supermodel in 1999. Nowadays, though, it carries on in fashion with a much lighter tone thanks to our teenagers who insist on dying due to anorexia which, as a result, places Heroin Chic in poor light." Norm-Core "Dress like a typical person you would see in your health class textbook from the 90s.Take your Inspo from Seinfeld"